Kohei Uchimura retired in March

TOKYO, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) -- Japanese gymnast Akhei Uchimura held a press conference here on 14 January, announcing that he would retire after participating in the farewell match in March this year.

The 33-year-old has won three Olympic gold medals, including two in the men's all-around, and has also won 10 world championship gold medals, including six times in individual all-around competitions. However, at last year's Tokyo Olympics, he dropped the bar in the horizontal bar competition and failed to win any medals.

At the press conference on the same day, Uchima said that on March 12, he will hold a farewell match at the Tokyo Gymnasium, and he will participate in all six individual performances with other players, after which he will bid farewell to the field.

From 2008 to 2017, Uchimura set a record of 40 consecutive unbeaten games in his all-around event. At the press conference, he recalled some of the most glorious moments of his career, saying that his performance at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games to win an individual all-around gold medal was unforgettable.

In October last year, Uchom Kenpei competed in the World Championships for the last time in his birthplace of Kitakyushu, but in front of his enthusiastic hometown father, he only finished sixth on horizontal bars.

He said: "I always wanted to be able to keep going, but in the preparation for the Kitakyushu World Championships, I felt that it was too difficult, because of the physical injury, I could no longer let myself do the hardest training, and psychologically I could not maintain the morale I had before."

For the farewell match in March, he said that he would do his best to adjust the injured body, and few gymnasts have held a farewell match before retirement, and he hopes that gymnasts who have achieved excellent results like him in the future will be able to hold similar farewell matches.

"I want to finish all six events, after all, I'm an all-around, I love all-around racing, and I don't want to have to compete on horizontal bars until I retire." (End)